Stretching and exercising a person's neck presents numerous challenges. One problem is that applying force or resistance to a person's neck usually involves directly coupling a device to the person's head, and such devices are typically complicated, uncomfortable, unwieldy, or ineffective. In addition, lifting weights or weight stacks via pulleys, flexed bands, or cables, leaves the user unable to modulate resistance while lifting. The user thus risks injury if he or she finds, while performing an exercise, that the resistance is too great.
Another problem is that a human neck is capable of multiple ways of moving, including flexion (bending forward, chin down), extension (bending backward, chin up), tilting (tilting the head side to side), and rotation (turning the head left or right, as in shaking one's head “no”), and combinations thereof. A person can also longitudinally extend his or her neck, by “standing tall.” Thus a device must be adapted to apply force or resistance in many different directions in order to exercise many different neck motions. For instance, a user may wish to apply force relatively straight downwardly while the user strives to extend his or her neck vertically, relatively straight up. A user may also wish to apply force downwardly at about a 45° angle to vertical, in order to affect tilting, forward flexion, backward extension, or combinations thereof. A user may also wish to apply rotational force or resistance such that rotation of a person's head is assisted or resisted.
Head movement is typically assisted when a resistance band is pulling in substantially the same direction as the head movement. An assisted movement can be associated with eccentric contraction of muscles. Head movement is typically resisted when a resistance band is pulling against the direction of head movement. A resisted movement can be associated with concentric contraction. In some embodiments, the resistance band applies force for an isometric contraction in which the load applied by the resistance band is matched by an opposite force due to muscular contraction, and no appreciable head movement results.